Report Finds 287(g) Creates a “Climate of Insecurity”

Yesterday, the UNC- Chapel Hill School of Law and the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, released a report on local immigration enforcement programs – also known as 287(g) programs. The basic findings of the report are that 287(g) programs have “created a climate of racial profiling and community insecurity” in North Carolina communities.

The 152 page-long report finds that:

the program encourages officers to target Hispanics for arrest and discourages immigrants from reporting crimes. The report also says that in many cases local agencies are failing to comply with the terms of the agreements they made with the federal government.

This is the same program that gives good old Sheriff Joe Arpaio the authority to enforce immigration law in Maricopa County. This is also the same program that has allowed him to spiral into an unchecked, power-hungry, latino-hunting machine, in spite of his atrocious record of human and civil rights violations – not to mention the crimes going unenforced by his agency. Read more about Arpaio here and sign the petition!

“We found serious erosion of community trust, as well as legal concerns,” said Deborah Weissman, a UNC law professor who lead the study, in a statement.

The 287 (g) program has been known to have this “chilling effect” in communities. Basically, it pushes immigrants even further into the shadows, where they are unwilling or frightened to report crimes – even violent crimes against themselves.